We feed our chickens dirt

[pennydog]

We live in a very wintery area and our chickens had to move into the barn for the winter. So they would have grit and other good stuff that comes from soil, I dug up a couple hundred pounds of sod/soil from our meadow.

They get about a ten pound lump every week and love eating the grass, roots and then slowly eat the rest of it.

I am surprised that I haven't read about anyone else doing this, it made sense to me and I cannot foresee a problem?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Interesting idea, how/where do you store it? Talk about cheap entertainment for the chickens. Really pretty much the same thing people do when they give baby chicks clumps of dirt/grass in the brooder for coccidia exposure.

 

[chfite]

It sounds like a good idea for chickens indoors all the time. Mine forage in the winter as well as in the summer, so they have their favorite dirt already selected.

Chris

 

[igottadash]

We have had a very small mature free-ranging flock, but started with 40 4-H chicks this year (dual purpose). Before we received them I'd read about digging out some sod and dirt that comes with it and giving it to them. The chicks loved it, kept them entertained and healthy. Mine were the only ones that I'm aware of that didn't get pasty butt. We still offer that to them and after the garden was done, we also moved our decorative outdoor pots where we had grown edible plants, into their brooder building and they have continued to love the use of the soil and the exercise.

 

[pennydog]

I'd like to say that I made a neat row of sod in the barn but the reality is that it is still piled on a small garden trailer, where it will probably stay for the winter.